Fernando Cabada, 24, ran 2:12:27 for ninth place at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan on December 3 in his debut at the 26.2-mile distance. Cabada set an American record of 1:14:21 in winning the USA 25K in Grand Rapids in May. He was second to Ryan Hall in the USA 20K in New Haven on Labor Day. Cabada won seven NAIA track and cross country titles for Virginia Intermount University in Bristol, including a 5000/10,000 double at the 2005 outdoor championships. He was eighth in the 10,000 at the USATF Championships in June. Cabada ran 13:34 for 5000 and 28:25 for 10,000 meters on the track in 2006, the latter at the Oregon Invitational where he defeated Simon Bairu and Robert Cheseret. He also won the Country Music Half-Marathon in Nashville in 1:04:57. Cabada attended the University of Arkansas, then took some time off, then went to Minot State in North Dakota briefly before switching Virginia Intermount when Minot Coach Scott Simmons took a job there.

Runner's World Daily: You're still in recovery phase at this point. How are you feeling after your Fukuoka Marathon?
Fernando Cabada: Actually, I'm in Fresno, California right now, so it's another three-hour time change from Tennessee - Bristol - where I'm usually at ("Bristol" is on both sides of the Virginia/Tennessee border). So in the past ten days or so, I've traveled a lot and ran a marathon. Other than just kind of feeling tired and doing a little partying and stuff like that, I think I'm pretty fine. I'm excited about the upcoming season.

Right now, I'm just trying to reflect, trying to realize what I just did, because sometimes I have trouble realizing things, you know what I mean? I don't want to wait till I'm 60 years old to remember what I did. I want to really absorb it all. I want to know now. I want to give myself a pat on the back, because I feel that I never get to do that as much. I'm always my own worst critic. I'm always pointing out things - I could have done this better, and this and this and this. I never give myself a pat on the back. And I think when you're at this level, you need that. This is our life. We need something to keep us going.

RWD: A 2:12 is a very good debut for someone just coming out of the NAIA ranks. We'd imagine it's something that makes you feel VERY good about yourself at this point.
FC: I don't really know how to explain it, because I just keep thinking back two years ago. I was a 14:20something guy (for the 5000), barely under 30:00 for the 10k. I was just one of those average guys who could probably not even make it out of conference - the conference meet would probably be my last race if I was in D-1 (NCAA Division I). A lot of things happened, and sometimes I ask myself "well, how did you do this?" I'm 24 years old, so I was 22 years old still running times that a 19-year-old kid probably should be running. I broke out of it somehow. I'm one of the lucky ones. For some reason, I just never stopped believing.

I started out running races and I'd wonder "why am I the one getting passed? Why am I the one never having a good race? Why can't I be at bigger races, bigger championships?" Especially when I went to Arkansas. I was on the sidelines, where I watched Alistair Cragg and Daniel Lincoln do well and get All-Americans and win national championships, and that was just like a dream. I used to fantasize I could do something like that. Alistair Cragg at that point was like my idol. He was just like the God, and I just wanted to do something like that. And I got to live that at Virginia Intermount. It was an NAIA school but I started out winning national championships for them. It's not D-1, but this past year, I started beating some of those D-1 guys who were the best of the D-1ers. And this now, what I just did (at Fukuoka), I think it's the seventh fastest debut in (American) history. It's pretty significant. That has to tell me something. It proved to me that I belong. I'm not quite in the club yet, but I'm almost there.

RWD: Why do you think it took until you got to Virginia Intermount for you to really start pulling it together, and what do you think is the reason you did pull it together? Were you just finally getting in some good consistent training for the first time?
FC: By that time, I was 22 years old. I'd already failed at a lot of things in my life. I didn't do well at Arkansas. I got to learn from my mistakes. I was little bit older, I was more mature, and I knew what I wanted in life. And the actual training - well, Coach (Scott) Simmons as opposed to John McDonnell, John McDonnell is a great coach, but he didn't have time to really baby-sit anybody. He's a coach, he's not a babysitter. He's there to win. Coach Simmons paid attention to me; he had the TIME to pay attention to me. Coach McDonnell can't focus on all of his athletes. If an athlete wants to talk to him, there's a line of reporters out his door. If you're Alistarr Cragg or something, you do to the front of the line, but someone like me, he (McDonnell) doesn't have time for that. It's real cutthroat there. He's a businessman, more like, and (for) Coach Simmons, I was it. He has time. There's no one over there interviewing him. He's like me. He's hungry, too. And he went on my own pace. The NAIA allowed a guy who's 14:30 to actually become somebody. A 14:30 guy's going to make the nationals and be All-American. A 14:30 guy in the NCAA, you're done after conference, buddy, that's it, you're not going to nationals.

And so it (NAIA) allowed me to actually have something to go for. It made me feel like "oh, I'm actually somebody." Especially when I'm breaking 14:00. In NAIA, it's like "let's break 14:20 first, then take baby steps." In NCAA, no, there's no time. You need to break 14:00 now in order to make the nationals. You only had so long, this was the qualifying standard, that's how it went. And if you didn't get that time, you're so depressed. You feel like you're worthless. But in NAIA, I didn't feel like I was worthless. And I actually became great in NAIA. It was like a snowball effect. I started breaking 14:00, started beating a couple of guys, and then I'm like "well maybe I could have been All-American indoors, maybe I could have been this." It just started like that. I kept building my confidence. I exploded. And now I'm here right now.

RWD: One of the nicest experiences most have been when the NAIA Championships were back home in Fresno, and you won two races, the 5000 by 35 seconds and the 10,000 by 40 seconds, quite handily (Interviewer's note: This is indeed what our web research turned up, but we were happy to be corrected by Cabada).
FC: Not exactly. You're probably talking about the year before, 2005. I actually wasn't able to run (in Fresno in 2006). I signed with an agent too early. Not too many distance runners become professional runners out of the NAIA, so they don't have too many rules. They don't know what to do. I won the (USA) 25K Championships and received $8,000 and it was actually perfectly legal under the NAIA. As far as Division I, that was a different story. A lot of people felt that because I took $8,000, that was the reason I was held out (of the 2006 NAIA Track & Field Championships). No. I was able to accept that because a road race is considered cross country under the NAIA rules. Since I was done with cross country, I didn't have any eligibility to lose.

But the thing is, I signed with an agent. I had to hurry up and sign with an agent in order to get the best (shoe) deal; they say you want to hurry up and do things especially before the D-I guys came out. I think I kind of rushed myself. I probably didn't need to. I could have waited, probably. But I just was thinking too much. I was young. This is all new to me, you know? So I said okay. So I just signed with them (Flynn Sports Management). I didn't think there was anything wrong. They found out somehow; I don't know. I got interviewed by MensRacing and I told them I got signed, and somebody turned me into the NAIA, or whatever. So three hours before my race, after my family made about 100 T-shirts of me, they told me then - three hours before the 10k, that I couldn't run. I wish they could have told me a week in advance, since that's how much time they had to make a decision. It's alright. I had nothing else to prove in the NAIA. I mean, what's two more NAIA championships, really?

RWD: You've already started traveling a lot as a runner. You went to Hungary for the World Road Running Championships and to Japan for the Chiba Ekiden and then Fukuoka, a very fabled marathon there. What did you think of the experience of running in a country where they really do cherish marathoners?
FC: Right when I got to the city of Fukuoka, about ten days before the marathon, it was kind of tough at first. Me and my coach had to walk around the block a couple of times. It kind of reminded me of a mini-New York City with all Japanese letters. You'd figure someone would know English here or there, so we're walking around and it turned out that no one spoke English. When you go try to eat, you better hope there are pictures on that menu because otherwise you're going to pick something and just hope for the best. But after a couple of days we found a place for lunch, and I ate there every day for lunch. It was a Thai restaurant actually, and they spoke broken English. The most important thing is they had pictures on the menu, so I was good to go. I just pointed and smiled. It was a good experience. Me and my coach, Scott Simmons, shared a room. Me and him bonded more than ever. I ran for him in college, but now it's more of a man-to-man good type, a good friendship, actually, a good team. We'd go to a famous park in Fukuoka. I don't know if they're corporate teams, but there are 2k loops around this lake and there was a group of 30 guys, Japanese runners, doing workouts. Everybody's running in Japan. You're right, they do take it seriously. It was just a good experience.

What I was most impressed about in Japan is that the people take so much pride in their work, whether they work in McDonald's or as a janitor or a bellboy at a hotel, they are very respectful. They don't do anything half-assed, they do it right. No tips were allowed in Japan. Normally in the United States, people who are working are being nice to you so they can get tips or whatever. Over there, they're being nice to you because they have pride in their jobs, not because you're going to given them any money. I just thought that was pretty cool. A couple of days after we got back from Japan, when we were in Bristol, my coach called me up. He said "you know what?" I said "what's that, coach?" He said "I miss Fukuoka." I said "yeah, I miss it, too." That's actually a place I'll want to go back to.

RWD: So now, you're part of this new venture called The American Distance Project.
FC: Yeah, we decided to give it a little name here. It's just starting out, me and Fasil (Bizuneh).

RWD: Was Fasil Bizuneh someone you knew from college?
FC: I knew of Fasil. Fasil's two years older than me. I met him back five years ago or so, when he was at Arizona State. A couple of years ago, Coach Simmons started taking me to some roadraces and USA Cross Country Championships. Fasil was the only runner I really got along with and we'd hang out after the races and during the races and stuff. After my 25k I said, if I'm going to stay in Bristol, I'm going to need a training partner, at least one. And Fasil was the closest thing that could be perfect. It's just worked out perfectly. Sometimes, it's tough for the athletes to live together and train together without butting heads. You're always going to have some of that, but me and him are going pretty good. He's the perfect training partner, the perfect person. We talk to each other. We try to encourage each other the best we can. We learn from each other. I learned from him off his (Twin Cities) Marathon, I learned a lot, and he's learning from me now from my marathon and other things. When I ran fast half-marathons, we gave each other advice. It works out well.

RWD: Do you think your program will add more runners?
FC: You know, I was thinking about that. But I don't think I ever want to have that program with too many runners. Maybe a couple more. What will you get with runners who come in, trying to key off exactly what you're doing? Fasil doesn't go in there just doing what I'm trying to do, he goes over there trying to beat me. I need someone who's trying to beat me, not race me every day but someone who's not just wanting to key off me and be as good as me. I want someone with his own dreams. But yeah, I think a couple of more guys would be good. I'll be a bit more company. But I never get into having too many people.

RWD: Have you talked with Scott Simmons yet about what races are up next for you? For example, are you looking to go to USA Cross Country in Boulder?
FC: No, no. I don't think I've got a fair shot. It's up at elevation. After finishing this race right here (Fukuoka), I'm not going to be able to be ready to go. I don't want to race any longer just to make a team. I want to do something here. It's time for me to start mixing it up with the big boys and not just fight for the scraps on the table. I want to pick my races now more carefully. Before, I used to race myself into shape. I no longer want to do that. Whenever I race, it's time for business. I'm not messing around. It (Boulder) is a little bit too early, and in order for me to have a good shot, I would probably need to go to elevation for some time, and I don't want to move and leave Bristol to go train up at elevation. I've done fine without elevation. I ran a 2:12 debut running 105 miles a week or so at sea level in Bristol. I don't need to go to Boulder or anything to be great, I don't think. Everybody's different, but for me, it's working good where I'm at.

RWD: So what do you think your next major races would be?
FC: USA 15K in March (in Jacksonville), and maybe the 8k (in New York), I'm not sure.

RWD: Can we assume you want to go the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in New York in November?
FC: Yeah, that's the plan. I definitely want to go World Championships (in August in Osaka). I'm not getting talked out of that one. There's no way I'm going to miss World Championships for the HOPE that I'm going to make something. Anything can happen (at the Trials). I'm not going to hope and put all my eggs in one basket. I'm going to go and try and get a good finish at the World Championships, get a nice good PR, and nine weeks later, it's probably going to be a tactical race anyway, and I should be fine. A year ago, I never thought I'd run a marathon, and if I did, I never thought I'd run this fast. And so imagine 11 months from now; I'm going to be ready. I think I'm the, or one of the quickest uprising runners in this country right now. I'm not even close to being done.

RWD: In addition to the marathon and the road races, are you going to want to continue running 5000s and 10,000s on the track?
FC: Oh yeah, definitely. I'm not training 150 miles, just killing my body. The thing that helped me run 2:12, I think, is the fact that I was still doing 10,000-meter workouts. I was still doing twenty-five 400s on the track, 63s with under a minute rest. When you're in a marathon, you want to be able to run anything. I want to have some fun on the track and mix it up still. I'm planning on running the USA Indoor Championships (in March). Well...I'm not going to talk about it right now, but I'm planning on running an indoor race or two, the 3000.

RWD: We've read some of your other interviews; you are a confident guy. There's nothing wrong with that, because you are starting to back it up. There are people who criticize anyone who even points out what he's obviously very much capable of doing. But you feel very comfortable with saying what you think you can do all the time, and you don't really care...
FC: (Interrupts). Yeah, I don't try to use it like "oh, all of the sudden I'm being interviewed, it's time for me say something big." I think people who are way too cocky are people who are insecure already, so I really don't want to say I'm that. Normally, when people have to talk about something all the time, they're insecure, and I'm not insecure; I'm a very confident person. Whatever I say, I honestly believe. When you always try to play it safe, that's boring - "well, we'll see what happens, I'll try to do my best" - because who wants to read about that? If I'm never going to become the fastest guy ever in the world, that's fine. I just want to be remembered. I guess people can say there are different ways to be remembered, but I'm just going with what I feel from my heart. That's how I'm going to act, and I think everybody's fine with it on my side, on Team Cabada, my coach and my agent and Reebok. I've never changed. I'm who I am.

RWD: You come from a large family, and you've pointed out that you consider your mother to be your hero.
FC: Oh yeah. Me and her go back to fifth grade, fourth grade, going to races. She never missed a race. We were poor. She didn't even get her GED until she was 33, 34 years old. She's an office manager for a construction company, but she started out at $7.00 an hour and just started going to some business classes. She worked her way up. She's kind of like me. So I think when I started to do well, and I'm a hard worker, she started to do well as well. We helped each other. I got a lot of my determination from her, because no one was going to help her. There might always be so many people helping you, but it really comes from you, and no one's going to do anything for you unless you want to go and do it. No one's going to give me anything, and I've got to go out and get it, and that's what I'm trying to do. Still to this day, she's not content about anything; she wants to do better, do better, do better. That's kind of how I am, and I just got it from her.

Everything's starting to come out my way. Finally, I'm actually happy in my life. (There's) nothing in my life I'd change right now. And it's the first time I've ever felt like this, and it's a good feeling. And I feel like if I could accomplished now, I can accomplish anything if I just put my mind to it.